The instant invention relates to an operator""s interactive computer workstation for the conversion of two-dimensional motion pictures, video or other image information for three-dimensional display or viewing systems, as well as for the creation and integration of three-dimensional image information. As,such, this application relates to specific details of additional embodiments and improvements to the systems described in and co-invented by the instant applicant as, U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,294 and the systems described in applicant""s U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,606,625 and 5,050,984.
There exist a number of true three-dimensional, stereographic, binocular display systems, including: separate CRT displays for each eye, often routed through prisms or by mirrors, or mounted in a helmet sometimes with orientation sensors; and glasses with red and green or mutually polarized filters over the left and right eyes, for use with film or video displays.
Many video displays, including home televisions, work with an interlaced raster image where each image frame is divided into two fields, with the even lines displayed first followed by the odd lines (or vise versa). For US and Japanese systems the frame rate is 30/sec and the field rate is 60/sec; in Europe the rates are 25 and 50 respectively; for many industrial applications the rate is doubled to 60 and 120 respectively; and, many other rates are available or possible.
It is thus possible to form a stereoscopic 3-D display by creating a left and right image pair interleaved into the even and odd fields (or visa versa) of a video display, and viewing that display through LCD shuttered glasses which are flickered (180 degrees out of phase for each eye) in synchrony to the field rate of an interlaced video display, separating two xe2x80x98fieldxe2x80x99 images from a single video xe2x80x98framexe2x80x99 signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,594, of which the applicant is a co-inventor, describes a method for creating and modifying 3-D program material derived from already existing 2-D motion picture films and video, and other information; including a system to produce such material.
xe2x80x98Paintxe2x80x99 and similar interactive programs permit an artist or operator to create 2-D paintings, drawings, illustrations and business, technical and industrial graphics on computer systems.
The instant invention relates to techniques and devices for creating and/or delivering 3-D (stereoscopic, binocular, holographic, serial or otherwise) image information which may be derived from 2-D images or image elements converted to 3-D by the system, 3-D image elements created by the system, or integrated with pre-existing 3D image information created independent of the system.
The primary system component is an interactive 3-D computer paint system which shares many elements with 2-D computer paint systems, but which extends those elements suitably to deal with 3-D image information. User interface elements such as menus, buttons, palettes, cursors, and information windows may be placed in the Z or depth direction (perpendicular to the plane of the display screen) as well as in X (horizontal) and Y (vertical); these elements may also have size or xe2x80x98thicknessxe2x80x99 in the Z direction. In addition to image information (R, G and B or indexed colors) depth information may be stored with pixels in order to implement 3-D painting and processing functions. In this way, when further painting is to be performed at a particular pixel, the depth to be painted and the depth of what is already stored there may be compared; and, painting would only be accomplished if the new information was closer to the viewer than (and should thus obscure) what was already there.
Further, when painting, or other image manipulation or processing, functions are to be performed, they are performed on two separate images; one for the left eye and one for the right. However, the application of the function in each picture is offset in the horizontal direction by the appropriate parallax offset. The two images may then be interleaved for 3-D display. Thus, many standard 2-D painting and image processing algorithms may be applied, separately to each picture, without having to re-design or re-program them for interleaved 3-D images.
Techniques are disclosed for preparing such images for display with anaglyphic, LCD-shuttered, or new types of flickering glasses; or for broadcast by dual channel video systems. In addition, it is disclosed how such information may be adapted for use with virtual reality systems.
Additionally, system components are disclosed which permit the input, by a human operator, of more positional information than simply X and Y position, yet which may be constructed by combinations of simple X-Y transducers or other input elements used in combination.